created around the same time as 'Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog', the show simply named 'Sonic the Hedgehog' had quite a long complex path to completion. early Drafts (Known on his site as 'Freedom Team' due to large differences, were almost completely different from the final show and featured many characters based on the Western Animal names from Sonic 1, with Tails being missing from the cast. The show seamed (from concept art) to be fairly dark for a kids show and this was quickly changed. The much lighter show idea that was created next featured only three of the characters from the 'Freedom Team' idea, being Princess Sally Acorn (Based on the Animal 'Sally Acorn the squirrel, western version of the Male 'Ricky the squirrel'), Sonic the Hedgehog himself, and Doctor Robotnik. This new lighter version took more changes to the original animal cast, turning the rabbit 'Johnny ' into 'Bunnie Rabot', turning Joe Sushi the Walrus, into 'Rotor the Sea-lion', as well as a few more changes and introduced Tails into the cast. In this new show, Dr Robotnik had just taken over the planet Mobius from the Good King. Sonic's Uncle Chuck and dog Muttski had been captured by him and turned into mindless Robots. Sonic was planning an attack to get them back when it met Sally, the young daughter of the Good King, who had set up a group of freedom fighters and lived in the underground village of Knothole. Much earlier drafts even included an old man 'Nate Morgan', who was advisor to the good King. A Pilot episode was filmed and a comic was created to spin-off from the show. A number of changes were made from the original pilot and the show was given a much darker tone, along with small character changes (Like Rotor going from a sea-lion to a Walrus, and Antoine going from English to French) and the show ended up as the final version that was produced. 12 Episodes were made and released in the first Series in 1993. Unlike the other show at the same time, this one had a higher budget per episode and was designed as a network show, meaning a story that would carry on, even if not heavy (a bit like but less of a running story, shows like 'The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin' or 'The Flintstones' in it's mid-to late series). After Series one, there were a number of changes to the background story, which while unconfirmed in the first series was very clearly there, for series two. Other changes including minor character design tweaks (Antoine's appearance changed, Sally gained a Jacket, Rotor had a complete redesign and a new voice). Also the show became more story based as a single theme ran though out most of the series, ending up on the cliffhanger episode 'The Doomsday Project'. The Show was done at DIC and shared Jaleel white was the Voice of Sonic, but he was joined by Jim Cummings (more known as the Voice of Winnie-the-Pooh Bear) as Dr Robotnik, Charlie Adler (Tiny Toon adventures, GI Joe, The Transformers and many others) as his side-kick Snively, Kathie Soucie (Captain Planet, Tiny Toon Adventures, Pryde of the X-men and many others) as Princess Sally Acorn & Rob Paulson (Teenage Mutant Nija Turtles, The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the bible, The Tick and many others) and more as well as regular guest star William Windom (Murder she Wrote, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, The Farmer's Daughter and many others) and featured many guest stars such as Shari Belafonte (Hotel, Beyond Reality, The Midnight Hour), Tim Curry (The Worst Witch, Clue, Peter Pan and the Pirates and a lot more) & Michael Bell (Challenge of the Super friends, The Incredible Hulk, The Transformers, Spiral Zone and many others). Due to a mix of the Comic, which was based on earlier drafts but often changed at the drop of a hat, Writers ideas which may or may not have turned out in the end, and fan ideas, a lot of information on this series is often wrong or misinformation and with the spread of the internet, this information seams to take over. |
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